One layoff. A cascade of effects.
As a young married couple stretch their
dollars, they face questions - big and small - about the future
At the Then came March 31, 2008, the day the station laid off Pueschel
and 31 other staffers. Since then, Pueschel, 33, has freelanced sporadically, but
has yet to land a new job or come close to matching his $65,000 annual salary
at WBZ. Pueschel is one of 200,000 people collecting
unemployment benefits in . . . Winter melted into spring last year with the Pueschels
on track to realize
their piece of the American dream. As a Web producer, Mike, lanky and
earnest, finally was off night and weekend duty. "Things," Mike says, "were looking up." They put those plans on hold when Mike lost his job in the same round of
cutbacks that claimed WBZ veterans Bob Lobel and
Joyce Kulhawik. "We're trying to temper our expectations," Mike says. "I
often wish I had my old job back, which was nice and stable. If I think about
that too much, I get depressed, so I have to snap back to reality. There are
people who are worse off. I have some income, and In September, reconsidering starting a family and prepared to rent an
apartment, the Pueschels placed their condominium,
located at the top of two steep, baby-unfriendly flights of stairs, on the
market for $185,000. Real estate agent Nicole O'Connell posted pictures of
their "adorable penthouse condo" on her website. After the holidays
she cut the price to $179,000. Were Mike still working, O'Connell could hope to collect commissions on
the sale of the Pueschels' condo and their purchase
of a house. Now she, too, tempers her expectations. Her income has plunged. A
recent slight increase in sales, as mortgage rates fell, did little to
salvage a year that until then had seen her business fall to roughly a
quarter of what it was in 2007. She and her husband, who is an engineer, no
longer add to their savings, beyond what his employer deducts for retirement.
They have postponed projects for their "We need a new roof. We were going to do stuff around the house. A
walkway and a driveway. That's been put on hold. We're paying our bills fine,
but we're not able to do the extra," O'Connell says. "I have mixed
emotions. In light of the recent activity I'm hopeful. However, I am still
hearing more and more about people being laid off." . . . Mike sometimes thinks that if he hadn't gone into communications, he might
have taught kindergarten, so it's no surprise he wants to have more than one
child. Perhaps no adjustment the Pueschels have
made since Mike lost his job was more wrenching than the decision to postpone
starting a family that they're now weighing again. "Friends say that there's never going to be a right time. There's
always going to be a reason not to," Mike says. "It's still scary
because babies are expensive." "My parents made combined in the 30-thousands and raised all four of
us," Even as modern feminism and the introduction of oral contraceptives and
the legalization of abortion have affected birth rates, the economy remains
an important factor in the childbearing trends that influence everything from
school enrollments to the size of tomorrow's workforce. In 1936, during the
Depression, the average number of children a woman would bear dropped to a
new low of 2.1, notes demographer Carl Haub of the
Population Reference Bureau. "In the 1970s, we had the oil crisis and the inflation that caused.
In 1976, the total fertility rate dropped to 1.7 children per woman, and that
still holds the record," Haub says. "We
can certainly expect some consequence of the current situation." . . . Mike spends his days scouring job listings and sending out one of the two
versions of the resume he refined with the help of the career counselor WBZ
hired after the layoffs. He goes to job interviews holding a packet of
references touting him as a "team player as well as a self-starter"
and a "talented news producer and writer . . . capable of juggling many
tasks." He waits for his wife, his sweetheart since he was 18, to come
home. "I never knew how much of his identity was wrapped up in his
job," "I'm home alone all day," Mike says. The career management company that helped him is doing fine. Leslie Combs,
vice president of Lee Hecht Harrison, spends half his time on the career
transition side of the business, up from roughly one third a year ago.
"I work in an industry," he says, "that is relatively
recession proof." Mike takes home $509 a week in unemployment, minus a dollar for every
dollar over $200 that he earns freelancing. Unless his benefits are extended,
his unemployment runs out in about a month. He's waiting to hear if he lands
a job that pays almost $20,000 a year less than his old job, which at least
is more than the $35,000-a-year job offer he turned down shortly after he was
laid off. Recently, he heard about an opening in "We're thinking about it, but not incredibly seriously," he
says. " . . . The 200 block of The establishments form the before-and-after bookends of the Pueschels' recalibrated lifestyle. Gone are the evenings
when they walked to Soma, where, Mike says, "I love, love, love, love
the grilled scallops" appetizer that runs $12 and where business suffers
as other customers hold their wallets tighter. "The bar continues to stay busy. People are still coming in as a
social gathering place, but they're not spending the same," says owner
Nikita Paras. "Instead of ordering something
off the dinner menu, they're ordering off the pub menu. A cheeseburger or a
quesadilla." Now Mike bargain hunts for groceries at the Dollar Store, where chainwide earnings for the quarter that ended Nov. 30 are
up 14 percent over a year earlier, says company spokesman Joshua Braverman. "We're starting to see a more high-income
customer coming in." Some little luxuries the Pueschels shun remain
within reach for others. They no longer frequent the What's Brewin' Cafe, but owner Neil DeRosa
doesn't miss them. He's doing well enough to be selling his house in Yet in Boston's North End, where the Pueschels
used to enjoy cannoli and cookies at Modern Pastry,
bakery co-owner John Picariello laments a decline
in business so severe his employees recently decided they'd rather cut hours,
if need be, than risk layoffs. "The sweet tooth suffers," Picariello says. "People are still indulging.
They're just being careful what they're spending." These days the Pueschels watch "I have customers who have been with me for 30 years," Lazarides says. "They're doing their usual routine
every week. Thank God." . . . Most weekends, Since Mike lost his job, the Pueschels rarely
make the trip. The cutback saves gas money but carries other costs. "Of
course you miss them," says Barbara Roy, 66. " A trip to warmer climes is another casualty. The Pueschels
have vacationed in "It's not the same," Marie says. "They're our vacation
buddies." Mike never expected to enter 2009 still looking for work. "I was always nose to the grindstone," he says. "I never
thought it would happen to me. I guess I realize it can happen to
anyone." |
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